Map of the Chinese plain at the start of theWarring States Period in the 5th century BC.
Map of the Warring States Period, after Yue conquered Wu. OtherBaiyue peoples are shown in the south.
TheOld Yue language (Chinese:古越語;pinyin:Gǔyuè yǔ;Jyutping:Gu2 Jyut6 Jyu5;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Kó͘-oa̍t-gí / Kó͘-oa̍t-gír / Kó͘-oa̍t-gú,Vietnamese: Tiếng Việt cổ) is anunclassified language, or group(s) of various languages, spoken in ancient southern China, and northern Vietnam circa 700 BCE or later. It can refer to Yue, which was spoken in the realm ofYue during theSpring and Autumn period, or to the different languages spoken by theBaiyue. Possible languages spoken by them may have been ofKra–Dai,Hmong–Mien,Austronesian,Austroasiatic and other origins.
Knowledge of Yue speech is limited to fragmentary references and possible loanwords in other languages, principallyChinese. The longest attestation is theSong of the Yue Boatman, a short song transcribed phonetically in Chinese characters in 528 BC and included, with a Chinese version, in theGarden of Stories compiled byLiu Xiang five centuries later.[1]
NativeNanyue people likely spoke Old Yue, while Han settlers and government officials spokeOld Chinese. Some suggest that the descendants of the Nanyue spokeAustroasiatic languages.[2] Others suggest a language related to the modernZhuang people. It is plausible that the Yue spoke more than one language. Old Chinese in the region was likely much influenced by Yue speech (and vice versa), and many Old Yue loanwords in Chinese have been identified by modern scholars.[3]
There is some disagreement about the languages the Yue spoke, with candidates drawn from the non-Sinitic language families still represented in areas ofsouthern China to this day, which includesKra–Dai,Hmong–Mien, andAustroasiatic languages;[4] as Chinese, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, and theVietic branch of Austroasiatic have similar tone systems, syllable structure, grammatical features and lack of inflection, but these features are believed to have spread by means of diffusion across theMainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, rather than indicating common descent.[5][6]
Scholars in China often assume that the Yue spoke an early form of Kra–Dai. According to Sagart (2008), this is far from self-evident, because the core of the Kra–Dai area geographically is located inHainan and the China–Vietnam border region, which is beyond the extreme southern end of the Yue area. The linguist Wei Qingwen gave a rendering of the "Song of the Yue boatman" inStandard Zhuang.Zhengzhang Shangfang proposed an interpretation of the song in writtenThai (dating from the late 13th century) as the closest available approximation to the original language, but his interpretation remains controversial.[1][7]
Peiros (2011) shows with his analysis that the homeland of Austroasiatic is somewhere near theYangtze. He suggests southern Sichuan or slightly west from it, as the likely homeland of proto-Austroasiatic speakers before they migrated to other parts of China and then into Southeast Asia. He further suggests that the family must be as old as proto-Austronesian and proto-Sino-Tibetan or even older.[8] The linguists Sagart (2011) and Bellwood (2013) support the theory of an origin of Austroasiatic along the Yangtze river in southern China.[citation needed]
Sagart (2008) suggests that the Old Yue language, together with theproto-Austronesian language, was descended from the language or languages of the Tánshíshān‑Xītóu culture complex (modern-dayFujian province of China), making the Old Yue language asister language to proto-Austronesian, which Sagart sees as the origin of the Kra–Dai languages.[9]
Behr (2009) also notes that theChǔ dialect of Old Chinese was influenced by severalsubstrata, predominantly Kra-Dai, but also possibly Austroasiatic, Austronesian and Hmong-Mien.[10][full citation needed]
Theproto-Kra–Dai language has been hypothesized to originate in theLower Yangtze valleys. Ancient Chinese texts refer to non-Sinitic languages spoken across this substantial region and their speakers as"Yue". Although those languages are extinct, traces of their existence could be found in unearthed inscriptional materials, ancient Chinese historical texts and non-Han substrata in various Southern Chinese dialects. Thai, one of theTai languages and the most-spoken language in theKra–Dai language family, has been used extensively in historical-comparative linguistics to identify the origins of language(s) spoken in the ancient region of South China. One of the very few direct records of non-Sinitic speech in pre-Qin and Han times having been preserved so far is the"Song of the Yue Boatman" (Yueren Ge 越人歌), which was transcribed phonetically in Chinese characters in 528 BC, and found in the 善说 Shanshuo chapter of the Shuoyuan 说苑 or 'Garden of Persuasions'.
Willeam Meacham (1996) reports that Chinese linguists have shown strong evidence of Tai vestiges in former Yue areas: Lin (1990) found Tai elements in someMin dialects, Zhenzhang (1990) has proposed Tai etymologies and interpretations for certain place names in the former states ofWu andYue, and Wei (1982) found similarities in the words, combinations and rhyming scheme between the "Song of the Yue Boatman" and theKam–Tai languages.[11]
James R. Chamberlain (2016) proposes that the Kra-Dai language family was formed as early as the 12th century BCE in the middle of theYangtze basin, coinciding roughly with the establishment of theChu state and the beginning of theZhou dynasty.[12] Following the southward migrations ofKra andHlai (Rei/Li) peoples around the 8th century BCE, the Yue (Be-Tai people) started to break away and move to the east coast in the present-dayZhejiang province, in the 6th century BCE, forming the state of Yue and conquering the state of Wu shortly thereafter.[12] According to Chamberlain, Yue people (Be-Tai) began to migrate southwards along the east coast of China to what are now Guangxi, Guizhou and northern Vietnam, after Yue was conquered by Chu around 333 BCE. There the Yue (Be-Tai) formed the politiesXi Ou, which became theNorthern Tai and theLuo Yue, which became the Central-Southwestern Tai.[12] However, Pittayaporn (2014), after examining layers of Chineseloanwords in proto-Southwestern Tai and other historical evidence, proposes that the southwestward migration of southwestern Tai-speaking tribes from the modern Guangxi to the mainland of Southeast Asia must have taken place only sometime between the 8th–10th centuries CE,[13] long after 44 CE, when Chinese sources last mentioned Luo Yue in theRed River Delta.[14]
Proposed genesis of Daic languages and their relation with Austronesian languages (Blench, 2018)[15]
Kra-Dai (Tai-Kadai) migration route according to James R. Chamberlain (2016).[16]
Tai-Kadai migration route according to Matthias Gerner'sNortheast to Southwest Hypothesis.[17]
In the early 1980s, Zhuang linguist, Wei Qingwen (韦庆稳), electrified the scholarly community in Guangxi by identifying the language in the"Song of the Yue Boatman" as a language ancestral toZhuang.[18] Wei used reconstructedOld Chinese for the characters and discovered that the resulting vocabulary showed strong resemblance to modern Zhuang.[19] Later, Zhengzhang Shangfang (1991) followed Wei’s insight but used Thai script for comparison, since this orthography dates from the 13th century and preserves archaisms relative to the modern pronunciation.[19][1] Zhengzhang notes that 'evening, night, dark' bears the C tone in Wuming ZhuangxamC2 andɣamC2 'night'. The itemraa normally means 'we inclusive' but in some places, e.g. Tai Lue and White Tai 'I'.[20] However, Laurent Sagart criticizes Zhengzhang's interpretation as anachronistic, because however archaic that Thai script is, Thai language was only written 2000 years after the song had been recorded; even if theProto-Kam-Tai might have emerged by 6th century BCE, its pronunciation would have been substantially different from Thai.[7] The following is a simplified interpretation of the"Song of the Yue Boatman" by Zhengzhang Shangfang quoted by David Holm (2013) with Thai script and Chinese glosses being omitted:[21][a]
Hidden forever in my heart, ah! is my adoration and longing.
Some scattered non-Sinitic words found in the two ancient Chinese fictional texts, theMu Tianzi Zhuan (Chinese:穆天子傳) (4th c. B.C.) and theYuejue shu (Chinese:越絕書) (1st c. A.D.), can be compared to lexical items in Kra-Dai languages. These two texts are only preserved in corrupt versions and share a rather convoluted editorial history. Wolfgang Behr (2002) makes an attempt to identify the origins of those words:
Besides a limited number of lexical items left in Chinese historical texts, remnants of language(s) spoken by the ancient Yue can be found in non-Han substrata in Southern Chinese dialects, e.g.:Wu,Min,Hakka,Yue, etc. Robert Bauer (1987) identifies twenty seven lexical items inYue,Hakka andMin varieties, which shareKra–Dai roots.[26] The following are some examples cited from Bauer (1987):[26]
to beat, pound:Yue-Guangzhoutap8 ←Siamesethup4/top2, LongzhoutupD1, Po-aitup3/tɔpD1, Mak/DongtapD2, Tai Nueatop5,Sui-LingamtjăpD2,Sui-JungchiangtjăpD2,Sui-PyotjăpD2,T'entjapD2, White Taitup4, Red Taitup3,Shanthup5, Lao Nong Khaithip3, Lue Moeng Yawngtup5, Leiping-Zhuangthop5/top4,Western Nungtup4,Yaytup5,Saekthap6, Tai Lothup3,Tai Mawthup3, Tai Notop5,Wuming Zhuangtup8,Li-Jiamaotap8.
to bite:Yue-Guangzhoukhap8 ←Siamesekhop2, Longzhoukhoop5, Po-aihap3,Ahomkhup, Shankhop4,Lükhop, White Taikhop2, Nungkhôp, Hsi-linhapD2S, Wuming-Zhuanghap8, T'ien-paohap, Black Taikhop2, Red Taikhop3, Lao Nong Khaikhop1,Western Nungkhap6, etc.
to cover (1):Yue-Guangzhouhom6/ham6 ←Siamesehom2, Longzhouhum5, Po-aihɔmB1, Laohom, Ahomhum, Shanhom2, Lühum, White Taihum2, Black Taihoom2, Red Taihom3,Nunghôm,Tayhôm,Thohoom, T'ien-paoham, Dioihom, Hsi-linhɔm, T'ien-chowhɔm, Lao Nong Khaihom3,Western Nungham2, etc.
Yue-Hashimoto describes theYue Chinese languages spoken inGuangdong as having a Tai influence.[27] Robert Bauer (1996) points out twenty nine possible cognates between Cantonese spoken inGuangzhou andKra–Dai, of which seven cognates are confirmed to originate fromKra–Dai sources:[28]
Li Hui (2001) finds 126 Kra-Dai cognates inMaqiaoWu dialect spoken in the suburbs ofShanghai out of more than a thousand lexical items surveyed.[35] According to the author, these cognates are likely traces of the Old Yue language.[35] The two tables below show lexical comparisons between Maqiao Wu dialect and Kra-Dai languages quoted from Li Hui (2001). He notes that, in Wu dialect, final consonants such as -m, -ɯ, -i, ụ, etc don't exist, and therefore, -m in Maqiao dialect tends to become -ŋ or -n, or it's simply absent, and in some cases -m even becomes final glottal stop.[36]
A well-known loanword into Sino-Tibetan[40] isk-la fortiger (Hanzi: 虎; Old Chinese (ZS):*qʰlaːʔ > Mandarin pinyin:hǔ, Sino-Vietnamesehổ) fromProto-Austroasiatic *kalaʔ (compare Vietic*k-haːlʔ >kʰaːlʔ > Vietnamesekhái and Muongkhảl).
The early Chinese name for the Yangtze (Chinese:江;pinyin:jiāng; EMC:kœ:ŋ; OC: *kroŋ; Cantonese: "kong") was later extended to a general word for "river" in south China. Norman and Mei suggest that the word is cognate with Vietnamesesông (from *krong) and Monkruŋ "river".
*-dəŋA "shaman" may be compared withVietnameseđồng (/ɗoŋ2/) "to shamanize, to communicate with spirits" andMon doŋ "to dance (as if) under demonic possession".[42][43]
*kiɑnB 囝 "son" appears to be related to Vietnamesecon (/kɔn/) and Mon kon "child".[44][45]
Norman and Mei's hypothesis has been criticized byLaurent Sagart, who demonstrates that many of the supposed loan words can be better explained as archaic Chinese words, or even loans from Austronesian languages; he also argues that the Vietic cradle must be located farther south in current north Vietnam.[9][46]
Norman & Mei also compares Min verb "to know, to recognize"捌 (Proto-Min*pat; whenceFuzhou/paiʔ˨˦/ &Amoy/pat̚˧˨/) to Vietnamesebiết, also meaning "to know, to recognize". However, Sagart contends that the Min & Vietnamese sense "to know, to recognize" is semantically extended from well-attested Chinese verb別 "to distinguish, discriminate, differentiate" ((Mandarin:bié; MC:/bˠiɛt̚/; OC:*bred);[47] thus Sagart considers Vietnamesebiết as a loanword from Chinese.
According to theShuowen Jiezi (100 AD), "In Nanyue, the word for dog is (Chinese:撓獀;pinyin:náosōu; EMC:nuw-ʂuw)", possibly related to other Austroasiatic terms.Sōu is "hunt" in modern Chinese. However, inShuowen Jiezi, the word for dog is also recorded as 獶獀 with its most probable pronunciation around 100 CE must have been*ou-sou, which resembles proto-Austronesian*asu,*u‑asu 'dog' than it resembles the palatal‑initialed Austroasiatic monosyllable Vietnamesechó, Old Monclüw, etc.[7]
Zheng Xuan (127–200 AD) wrote that扎 (Middle Chinese:/t͡ʃˠat̚/, modern Mandarin Chinesezā, modern Sino-Vietnamese: "trát") was the word used by theYue people (越人) to mean "die". Norman and Mei reconstruct this word as OC *tsət and relate it to Austroasiatic words with the same meaning, such as Vietnamesechết and Monchɒt. However, Laurent Sagart points out that扎 is a well‑attested Chinese word also meaning "to die", which is overlooked by Norman and Mei.[47] That this word occurred in the Old Yue language in Han times could be because the Old Yue language borrowed it from Chinese.[47] Therefore, the resemblance of this Chinese word to an Austroasiatic word is probably accidental.[47]
According to Sagart, the resemblance between the Min word *-dəŋA "shaman" or "spirit healer" and the Vietnamese termđồng is undoubtedly by chance.[47]
Moreover, Chamberlain (1998) posits that the Austroasiatic predecessor of the modern Vietnamese language originated in modern-dayBolikhamsai Province andKhammouane Province inLaos as well as parts ofNghệ An Province andQuảng Bình Province inVietnam, rather than in the region north of theRed River Delta.[48] However, Ferlus (2009) showed that the inventions of pestle, oar and a pan to cook sticky rice, which is the main characteristic of theĐông Sơn culture, correspond to the creation of new lexicons for these inventions in Northern Vietic (Việt–Mường) and Central Vietic (Cuoi-Toum).[49] The new vocabularies of these inventions were proven to be derivatives from original verbs rather than borrowed lexical items. The current distribution of Northern Vietic also correspond to the area of Đông Sơn culture. Thus, Ferlus concludes that the Northern Vietic (Viet-Muong) speakers are the "most direct heirs" of the Dongsonians, who have resided in Southern part of Red River Delta and North Central Vietnam since the 1st millennium BC.[49] In addition, archaeogenetics demonstrated that before the Dong Son period, the Red River Delta's inhabitants were predominantly Austroasiatic: genetic data fromPhùng Nguyên culture's burial site (dated to 1,800 BCE) atMán Bạc (in present-dayNinh Bình Province,Vietnam) have close proximity to modern Austroasiatic speakers, while "mixed genetics" from Đông Sơn culture's Núi Nấp site showed affinity to "Dai from China, Tai-Kadai speakers from Thailand, and Austroasiatic speakers from Vietnam, including the Kinh"; these results indicated that significant contact happened between Tai speakers and Vietic speakers.[50]
Ye (2014) identified a few Austroasiatic loanwords in Ancient Chu dialect of Old Chinese.[51]
There is no known evidence of a writing system among the Yue peoples of theLingnan region in pre-Qin times, and the Chinese conquest of the region is believed to have introduced writing to the area. However, Liang Tingwang, a professor from theCentral University of Nationalities, said that the ancient Zhuang had their own proto-writing system but had to give it up because of theQinshi Emperor's tough policy and to adopt theHan Chinese writing system, which ultimately developed into theold Zhuang demotic script alongside the classical Chinese writing system, during theTang dynasty (618–907).[52]
^The upper row represents the original text, the next row the Old Chinese pronunciation, the third a transcription of written Thai, and the fourth line English glosses. Finally, there is Zhengzhang's English translation.
^The second syllablena:3 may correspond to Tai morpheme for 'field'.
^Behr, Wolfgang (2009). "Dialects, diachrony, diglossia or all three? Tomb text glimpses into the language(s) of Chǔ",TTW-3, Zürich, 26.-29.VI.2009, "Genius loci".
^abBauer, Robert S. (1987). 'Kadai loanwords in southern Chinese dialects', Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan 32: 95–111.
^Yue-Hashimoto, Anne Oi-Kan (1972),Studies in Yue Dialects 1: Phonology of Cantonese, Cambridge University Press, p. 6,ISBN978-0-521-08442-0
^Chamberlain, J.R. 1998, "The origin of Sek: implications for Tai and Vietnamese history", in The International Conference on Tai Studies, ed. S. Burusphat, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 97-128. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University.
Bauer, Robert S. (1996)."Identifying the Tai substratum in Cantonese"(PDF).Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Languages and Linguistics, Pan-Asiatic Linguistics V: 1 806- 1 844. Bangkok: Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University at Salaya.
Sagart, Laurent (2008)."The expansion of Setaria farmers in East Asia". In Sanchez-Mazas, Alicia; Blench, Roger; Ross, Malcolm D.; Ilia, Peiros; Lin, Marie (eds.).Past human migrations in East Asia: matching archaeology, linguistics and genetics. Routledge. pp. 133–157.ISBN978-0-415-39923-4.In conclusion, there is no convincing evidence, linguistic or other, of an early Austroasiatic presence on the southeast China coast.
Li, Hui (2001)."Daic Background Vocabulary in Shanghai Maqiao Dialect"(PDF).Proceedings for Conference of Minority Cultures in Hainan and Taiwan, Haikou: Research Society for Chinese National History:15–26. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2018-03-27. Retrieved2021-10-03.
Zhengzhang Shangfang 1999. "An Interpretation of the Old Yue Language Written inGoujiàn'sWéijiă lìng" [句践"维甲"令中之古越语的解读]. InMinzu Yuwen4, pp. 1–14.
Zhengzhang Shangfang 1998. "Gu Yueyu" 古越語 [The old Yue language]. In Dong Chuping 董楚平 et al. Wu Yue wenhua zhi 吳越文化誌 [Record of the cultures of Wu and Yue]. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1998, vol. 1, pp. 253–281.
Zhengzhang Shangfang 1990. "Some Kam-Tai Words in Place Names of the Ancient Wu and Yue States" [古吴越地名中的侗台语成份]. InMinzu Yuwen6.
![Proposed genesis of Daic languages and their relation with Austronesian languages (Blench, 2018)[15]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGenesis_of_Daic_languages_and_their_relation_with_Austronesians.png)
![Kra-Dai (Tai-Kadai) migration route according to James R. Chamberlain (2016).[16]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aKra-Tai-Migration1.png)
![Tai-Kadai migration route according to Matthias Gerner's Northeast to Southwest Hypothesis.[17]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGerner_Tai-Kadai_migration_route.png)